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Fallen tree kills passing motorcyclist

A huge marked stump, random motorcycle parts and painted markings along Patuxent River Road are the scant evidence, which remains from an accident that Wayne Wright won't soon forget.

"I came down to see what was happening because they had the street blocked off,” said Wright, “I saw the motorcycle and the body covered up with the blanket with the white tarp and everything."

A logging company out of southern Maryland called Loveville Timberworks had been removing trees in the area for a week or so, when workers attempted to bring one down one way and it fell the other.

Tragically, the 51-year old victim, Michael Morales was riding by on his motorcycle along Patuxent River Road in the same fateful instant.

"All indications are and witness accounts state that the tree fell on the motorcyclist as he was passing, so very tragic, very unusual incident,” said Marc Limansky of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, “Our hearts go out to the family involved in this. It's a very unusual case."

Tragic in every sense of the word, as one man lost his life, while others looked on helplessly, fully aware that their own miscalculation while cutting the tree had deadly consequences.

"When I got here the workers were over here and from the way their facial expressions were, you could tell they were hurt about the whole situation," said Wright.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore is conducting an autopsy on the victim, but investigators have made it clear that neither speed nor alcohol appear to have been involved in the crash.

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